After 20 years, impaired driving crash survivor meets her hero

WATCH ABOVE: We first told you about a Toronto woman two weeks ago who set out on an unusual search. She was looking for her hero, the man who helped her through the most trying moments in her life. Caryn Lieberman has the updated story of an impaired driving crash survivor who found the man who held her hand in a moment that would bond them together for life.

The last thing she expected to see on the highway was a set of headlights directly in front of her. A head-on crash with a driver who would later be charged with impaired driving and serve several months behind bars. A man, she would eventually forgive.

Beauparlant swerved, went airborne, and landed in a ditch. She was trapped in her vehicle, badly hurt.

That’s when “Martin” arrived. Martin Meres had been driving a few car lengths behind Beauparlant and witnessed it all. He immediately jumped into action. He pulled over and ran to her side, where he remained for what felt like an eternity.

“That was the longest two or three minutes of my life,” said Meres.

“I remember just talking to Laura and trying to keep her mind off what had happened and praying and hoping that professionals would arrive quickly and take care over.”

A photo of the wreckage of Laura Beauparlant’s car after it was struck by an impaired driver on Nov. 12, 1995.

Laura Beauparlant

Beauparlant remembered Martin too. His first name, his buzz cut and his smokey breath. But that’s it.

There was a street light behind him, and it shone, so it was difficult to make out his face — only a silhouette.

For years, Beauparlant went through surgery after surgery to deal with her many injuries, in addition to therapy for the emotional scarring, but the man who stroked her hand, and her hair, and comforted her in those moments of terror, stayed with her. And she wanted desperately to thank him.

“I had no idea that those two or three minutes, the fact that I pulled over and stayed with her until the help arrived had that big of an impact on her,” Meres said.

The issue for Beauparlant was that she couldn’t identify him, as she hadn’t been able to see his face, and didn’t know his last name.

When he called the next day to check up on her at the hospital, a nurse had a rough pronunciation of his last name, but no exact spelling and no contact information.

Fast forward nearly two decades and Beauparlant has posted her story on Facebook about her search for the man who was her hero.

In days, it’s shared tens of thousands of times.

And then a message pops up.

It was from the woman Meres had been dating at the time of the crash. She’d remembered him telling her about Laura, about the crash, and about an unusual passenger inside the car that day.

“I looked around the car hoping the situation wasn’t going to go from bad to worse,” Meres said.

“And almost had a heart attack because Laura at the time had an iguana for a pet that she didn’t tell me about!”

A pet iguana that also survived the crash.

Beauparlant knew that if a “Martin” should ever come forward as being her hero, that he would remember there was an iguana in her car.

Now Beauparlant and Meres are forever bonded by a few minutes, 20 years ago.

“I really believe that if we did more of these little kindnesses to other people the world could be a much better place,” she said.

Both agree there’s another message from their story.

“Don’t drink and drive, I hope that message, I hope that eventually people will get that part of the story,” said Beauparlant, with Meres adding, “Here’s hoping.”